FT. WORTH, Tx - The Southern Jaguars baseball season likely came to an end Friday, losing to Prairie View A&M 11-4 on the second day of the SWAC Tournament.

Southern ends their season with a record of 21-23 on the year after three Jaguar pitchers combined to give up 10 earned runs in the first six innings.

For more on the baseball postseason and Southern, tune in to WBRZ at 6 & 10.

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BATON ROUGE - Southern University announced this afternoon that head men's basketball coach Roman Banks agreed to a contract extension with the university.

"We have reached an agreement, in principle, to extend the contract of Head Coach Roman Banks as the leader of the Southern Jaguars Men's Basketball team," said Athletics Director Dr. William Broussard.

Banks led Southern to a 23-11 record this year and a spot in the NCAA Tournament, where they lost in the final minutes of their first-round game with No. 1 Gonzaga.

Sports 2 will have more details on Banks' contract tonight on News 2 at 6.

 

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BATON ROUGE - The Final Four is set for this weekend, a place thought to be out of reach for LSU and Southern basketball...but maybe not for long.

After lowered expectations this year, both programs exceeded predictions from college basketball prognosticators. For a look back on the year that was on the hardwood, here's WBRZ Sports 2's Brian Holland.

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BATON ROUGE - The Jaguars' baseball series this weekend vs Selma at Lee Hines Field has been canceled due to travel issues.

Southern is back on the diamond Wednesday at University of New Orleans. 

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BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Metro Council honored the Southern University basketball team for their performance in the NCAA tournament.

The 16-seed Southern played a close game against the first-seed Gonzaga Bulldogs, but the Jaguars lost 58-64.

Councilwoman Tara Wicker expressed how proud the parish was in their efforts and how well they represented the city.

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SALT LAKE CITY - A March Madness warm-up turned into a great escape for Gonzaga.

The Zags got pushed to the limit by Southern on Thursday, pulling out a 64-58 victory in the closing minutes to avoid becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 in the NCAA tournament.

Kelly Olynyk led the Zags (32-2) with 21 points. They play No. 9 Wichita State on Saturday.

But it was a pair of 3-pointers - one by Gary Bell Jr., the next by Kevin Pagnos - that staked the Bulldogs to a 62-58 lead only moments after the game was tied at 56 with 3:45 left.

Derick Beltran had 21 points to lead Southern (23-10) and his 14-foot baseline jumper tied it at 56. But the Jaguars from the Southwestern Athletic Conference didn't make another field goal.

No. 1 seeds are now 113-0 against 16s.

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The Southern Jaguar basketball team is preparing to open up the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah against top seeded Gonzaga.

And while Jaguar guard Derick Beltran leads the team offensively on the court, he also leads the team in a category his coach wishes didn't exist.

Tattoos.

The senior guard from Florida says it's his life story told all over his skin, and although it may turn many off or lead them to think negatively of Beltran, he's not changing.

 

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BATON ROUGE- The Southern University Jaguars will face off against the top seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs in Salt Lake City this Thursday, but their 16-seed ranking won't dash their confidence.

"We're pretty confident, you know, I think we're still trying to find ourselves, but at the same time we've got enough momentum that we feel like we can pull that upset," said Jameel Grace, the starting point guard.

"At the end of the day, they put their pants on just like we do, I think we got a perfect match up for them as far as our back court," said Derick Beltran, the shooting guard.

If the Jags win, it would be their first tournament victory since 1993, when the 13-seeded team faced off against fourth seeded Georgia Tech.

"It's a tall order but it's the N-C-two-A tournament, where tall orders are made," said Tommy Green, who was a coach on the team during their tourney win. "Any given time, your team can beat the so called better team, or the so called powerhouse team, but it's a David and Goliath situation."

Southern will host a watch party Thursday in their Cotillion Ballroom at 2:30 p.m.

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BATON ROUGE - Last year, Dray Joseph was competing for the starting quarterback role with JP Douglas. This year, there's no question about who's at the helm of the Southern offense.

Joseph will lean on his experience last year and the chip on his shoulder -- which, if history proves right, isn't a bad thing.

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HOUSTON - One swing of the bat made all the difference for Texas Southern in the opening game of the sixth Annual MLB Urban Youth Invitational at Minute Maid Park.

Tyler Flanagan's solo homerun was the only score in the Tigers' 1-0 win over Southern as TSU's Felix Gomez and Southern's Jesse Holiday engaged in a pitchers' duel in front of a crowd of 200 Friday afternoon.

Holiday and Gomez combined for 15 innings of work, striking out 12 total batters and scattering eight hits. The biggest of those eight hits in the game came in the bottom of the third inning.

Flanagan, batting ninth for TSU (5-2), took Holiday deep to right to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Holiday, a senior from Sugar Land, Texas, only gave up one hit and struck out four Texas Southern batters before giving up the homer.

Holiday (1-1) pitched seven complete innings with four hits, one earned run and nine strikeouts in the loss.

"Holiday always seems to give us a tough time," Tigers head coach Michael Robertson said. "One thing you know about Southern starters, they go deep in the ball game and they throw strikes.

The Jaguars (2-3) hit only as a team .153, managing four hits for the game.

"We had a ton of opportunities, but we couldn't get the big hit," said Southern head coach Roger Cador. "It's something that we have to work on and build the confidence of our young players to hit with two strikes and two outs."

The Jaguars suffered three innings of going three-up, three-down.

"We just played bad," said Southern head baseball coach Roger Cador. "When I say played bad I mean played bad from a stand point of at bats."

In the top of the sixth and the seventh Southern had runners on base but was caught stealing second by Tigers catcher Andrew Garza, who seemed to have the Jaguars batters number.

"It was a big momentum builder for us. Andrew did a good job for us throwing the ball, and Gomez did a good job with his time to the plate giving us a chance to throw him out," Robertson said.

Gomez (1-0) picked up the win for TSU, pitching eight shutout innings, allowing four hits and walking three batters. Denzel Pipkin picked up the save for the Tigers, his first of the season.

"We normally ask our starters to go seven innings and hopefully three runs or less and I just thought he was phenomenal," Robertson said.

Southern (2-3) will not have much time to dwell on this game as they will face Alabama State Saturday at 4 p.m. in the second day of the three-day round robin event. The game will be featured live on the MLB Network, which airs on Cox channel 254 and 1254 for HD.

Meanwhile, TSU and archrival Prairie View A&M plays at 8 p.m.
"We've just got to find a way to do better and see what happens from there," said Cador.

 

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